Cocktails at Button Bar, Surry Hills

Walk through an unassuming doorway and step into Button Bar. Warm timbers and soft lighting encourage one to take a booth, sit at the communal table or take a place at the bar. Now that you are comfortable, let’s talk drinks.

Button Bar, Surry Hills

Bar Manager Brett Harris (ex Fino Par, Hello Sailor) has created a new cocktail list in line with the bar’s nautical theme. The list is divided into three sections which makes choosing your delicious poison with ease. “Pirates” lists five rum-based drinks, “Sailors” offers five gin-based cocktails and “Land Lovers” encompasses everything else.

The cocktails bear names that are fun and playful like the “Jolly Roger”and the “Boo-Urns” but this is a cocktail bar that takes its drinks seriously. A quick scan on the back bar reveals a solid range of rum and gin along with other top shelf spirits.

10 Downing St

Start with the refreshing and moresih, 10 Downing St ($19), a drink that packs a punch from Broker’s Gin 47% ABV, Lillet Blanc, housemade ginger syrup and grapefruit bitters. The combination of the juniper-forward gin with citrus and ginger makes for easy sipping and well worth ordering another.

Westside Daiquiri

If you feel like going all retro or back to the future, the Westside Daiquiri ($18) is made with Bacardi Carta Blanca rum, housemade falernum, lime juice, Angostura bitters and the good old West Coast Cooler. This deliciously refreshing take on the classic daiquiri starts a little sweet and spicy and has a lingering dry finish.

La De Dada

La De Dada ($17) is Button’s take on the Pina Calada and is a cocktail you’ve got to have. Made with coconut infused Buffalo Trace, pineapple juice, lime juice, Coco Lopez, salt and Angostura bitters, the drink is served in a tin and garnished with a piece of pineapple, orange, and a mint sprig. The drinks starts with that unmistakable bourbon flavour followed by a hint coconut and fruit. One sip and you’ll be transported to a warm holiday in the sun.

House Barrel Aged Gin Martini with Fino Sherry

It is well worth asking for the house-aged gin, a combination of Ford’s Gin with Four Pillars Navy Strength Gin aged one month in an ex sherry oak cask. The gin starts mellow on the palate from the time in oak then picks up sherry spice and a good whack of gun powder finish from the Navy Strength gin. Delicious.

If you’re a fan of dry Martinis, the House Barrel Aged Gin Martini with Fino Sherry hits the right spot. It’s made with the house aged gin, Fino Sherry and orange bitters. It’s simply perfect.

Surry Hills Yacht Club

If you prefer your cocktails a little on the sweeter side, you’d enjoy the Surry Hills Yacht Club ($18) made with raspberry infused Bombay Sapphire gin, Amaro Averna, lemon juice, sugar syrup, raspberry shrub and egg white. Elegant, well balanced with vibrant raspberry notes, this is another well-crafted cocktail that makes a fine sipper.

It’s always good to see cocktails with Mezcal and the Nueva Plaza ($18) made with Mezcal, Hennessy VS, Antica Formula, ginger syrup and chocolate bitters delivers a satisfying smoky notes with a hint of sweetness from the Cognac.

Monty Burns

We’ve saved the best till last because once you have the Monty Burns ($20), you can’t go back. Wrap your lips around a perfectly balanced bittersweet mix of English Harbour 5 yo rum, Campari, Punt e Mes, orange bitters which you sip through Amaro Montenegro foam – this flavour bomb will tempt you to order it again. The Monty Burns is arguably one of the best cocktails we’ve had in 2015.

If you’re getting hungry, pizza is available all night, and soon, you’ll be able to snack on toasties with baked beans and tinned spaghetti.

This is a cocktail list that delivers quality drinks with a dash of fun, music that hits all the right notes or to put it simply, a place to meet up, unwind and enjoy. All the right buttons are pressed in this bar.

Cocktails at Button Bar, Surry Hills was last modified: December 20th, 2015 by Corinne Mossati

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Corinne Mossati

Corinne Mossati is the Founder/Editor of popular online magazine Gourmantic and Cocktails & Bars, a website dedicated to cocktail culture and the discerning drinker. She is named in Australian Bartender Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential List, is a member of The Academy responsible for judging the World’s 50 Best Bars. She has also judged the inaugural Australasian Whisky Awards and various national cocktail competitions.